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Recovering flooded vehicles requires careful service and follow-up

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Hurricane Ian flooded plenty of vehicles and rekindled memories of Hurricane Katrina for Dale Franklin, assistant vice president of strategic operations at Amerit Fleet Solutions, who recalled how some vehicles can end up too far gone to be put back on the road.

That was pretty obvious for trucks that had been sitting in water for two weeks with flooded cabs following the destructive Category 3 storm, which made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005.

“There wasn't much left to do with those,” Franklin said. “They sat there so long, that water got toxic and then we had to tell our guys to be very careful whenever they opened the door in one of those. It was godawful whenever they got those vehicles towed in.”

[Related: Tips for freeing up a frozen brake caliper]

Other vehicles can be saved from floodwaters but knowing the extent of water intrusion and the type of water (salt of fresh), will dictate the steps taken to get that truck back into service.